Patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,949, DE-A-3 541 821, and FR-A-2 629 012, for example, describe machines for making a pack out of card or the like by wrapping a blank around a mandrel. In those machines, the said mandrel is essentially in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped such that the packs obtained are likewise in the form of rectangular parallelepipeds.
Such packs are used for packaging objects or groups of objects that are inserted therein via a cover that is left open, with said cover being closed only after said objects have been inserted therein.
It happens rarely, and indeed almost never, that the section of the load constituted by said objects or groups of objects is constant up the entire height of the load, thereby fitting as closely as possible to the shape of the pack up the entire height of said pack into which said load is inserted, so at least some of the projecting corners of said pack are empty. As a result these empty projecting corners of the pack which are exposed to external attack are easily torn, which spoils appearance and reduces the protection afforded to the packaged goods. In addition, since they are useless, the empty corners of the pack constitute a waste of sheet material.